


Stephen Strange and the No Good Terrible Idea

by TintedPink



Series: Lysa Does Something Stupid [6]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-19
Updated: 2019-03-19
Packaged: 2019-11-25 21:26:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18171668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TintedPink/pseuds/TintedPink
Summary: Prompt: Tony taking care of Stephen after an interdimensional fight.





	Stephen Strange and the No Good Terrible Idea

**Author's Note:**

> I don’t have the energy to write an interdimensional fight, so this is basically Tony taking care of Stephen, without any actual battle... (Also, this is like, if Endgame rewound the timeline and everyone forgot it except Stephen and some others. So maybe Stephen knows Tony better than Tony knows Stephen.)

Tony expected the unexpected, it was in his job description, but he hadn’t expected a 6 foot tall wizard to collapse in his living room half dead and saying he didn’t actually need any help, just a place to lay low. Maybe he should have. He’d known about Strange coming onto the scene since dramatic  fluctuations in cosmic energy had led him to a building in New York with a weird symbol containing wizards.

The portal closed before Tony could really freak out, so that was good. Stephen Strange bleeding all over his nice floors kind of canceled out that positive though.

“I know you’ve been watching the Sanctum, you know who I am. We’re under attack and I need somewhere to recover. I can’t go back to the Sanctum or they’ll find me. I just need a half hour on your couch.”

“You are covered in blood and weird green goo. You’re not going anywhere near my couch.”

Stephen groaned, and not in a good way. In a “might be dying” way.

Crap.

“Crap.” Tony enlisted FRIDAY to get some practicing doctors to their location as he tried to get a handle on Stephen’s injuries. “What happened, give me specifics. Is this green goo going to make me sprout extra legs if I touch it?”

Strange coughed a couple of times and, okay, that was a really wet cough and there was definitely a speck of blood on his lips from said cough. Gross. Okay.

“It won’t hurt you. Just don’t eat it and you’ll be fine.” Tony has no idea how a dying guy can be so sassy, but Tony also has no idea why said dying guy came to him for help, but those were investigations for another day.

“Damn. It looked really edible, you know, what with it being remnants from some kind of fight you haven’t given me any details about. I was really just gonna go for it.”

“I have internal injuries. Shut up and get some cloth to staunch the bleeding on the outside. I can’t afford to lose much more blood.”

Tony sighed and started unbuttoning his shirt, which had been halfway discarded already after a long day dealing with Stark Industries business. “For someone staining my mahogany floors with blood you sure are bossy.”

“If you’d prefer I stain your floor with my dead body then keep doing what you’re doing.”

Tony wrapped the sleeves of the around Stephen’s leg where the bleeding was worst and made a tourinquette. “Help is about three minutes out, can you make it till then?”

Stephen is quiet for a second then said, “Maybe. My mystical energy is more depleted than I thought. I can’t heal myself.”

Tony sucked his teeth. “Can you got to a hospital or is that too dangerous.”

“It’s really better I didn’t go outside.”

“Alright, med bay it is. Friday, get some staff here. Tell them the pay is triple overtime and it’s priority one.”

“On it Boss.”

“Great. Alright, Stephen, can you get up?”

“Not for long enough to get anywhere.”

Tony nodded and then looked around the room. “Alright, Friday, baby, how comfortable are you remote piloting an armor?”

“It should be well within my skill set, boss.”

“Great, get one down here and you and me will put Stephen on a couch and take him to medbay. By the time we get there the chopper should be here.”

“I thought I wasn’t allowed on your couch covered in green goo.” Stephen coughed and it was much uglier than the last one.

“Hush now, Wizard, the adults who aren’t bleeding internally are talking.”

“I’m technically only a few years old boss.”

“Hush, Friday, the humans are talking.”

Stephen huffed. “I’m sorry you have to deal with him.”

“He has certain admirable traits that make it worth the hassle.”

“Hey, rude!”

Stephen chuckled then coughed again. When it finally cleared he said, “hush, Tony, the rational people are talking.”

“Rude.” Tony grumbled as he and the armor pushed the couch closer to Stephen. “Alight, Fri, you get his legs and I’ll get him under the arms. Be as gentle as possible, watch the pressure sensors.”

“Sure thing.” She said as the armor took position in front of Stephen. Friday grasped his legs while Tony grabbed him under the arms and on three they lifted him onto the couch. Stephen groaned, but Tony had heard worse. They switched places to move the couch into the elevator, and by the time they arrived at the end bay Dr. Simmons was already prepping a station for surgery.

She took one look at the state of Strange and said, “I’m going to need at least two assistants.”

“They’re en route. I’m happy to assist how I can until they get here.”

“Alright, well you two move him to an operating table while I scrub in. Careful not to jostle him too much.”

“Define not too much.”

She glared back at him, “At all.”

Tony put his hands up in surrender and then gestured to Friday to take up her position at Strange’s feet. They put him on an operating table at the count of three and then talked them through getting Stepen hooked up to a heart monitor and a blood pressure cuff. Tony helped her finish getting ready and then stepped back to let the doctor do her work.

——

Four nurses in total responded to Tony’s distress call and 18 hours later Stephen Strange was no longer internally bleeding, was in possession of a dozen or so stitches and was very much alive, for which Tony received no gratitude.

“Where’s my sling ring?”

“The doctor had it removed for sanitary reasons, plus, your mystical reserves aren’t up to snuff yet, you shouldn’t be using it right now.”

“You don’t understand the fate of the universe-“

“Yeah yeah, sure. Wong filled me in. Nice guy. I stopped by the Sanctum to tell whoever was there what was up. He was here a few hours ago, he was hoping to see your astral form or something. I told him you were out cold, he didn’t listen.” Tony looked down at his watch, “he should be back in a couple more hours. Did you know that your Kamar Taj place gets an alert when someone breaks into the New York-“

“What about the fight! How did the fight go?” Stephen slammed his hand on the bed without thinking and winced at the pain of it.

“They won. Wong couldn’t find you so they were scouring the universe for you.”

“I put up a barrier to keep from being found with the last of my magic.”

“Yeah, he said something like that. So, why’d you come here?”

Stephen glared at Tony.

“That’s not an answer, magic man. I need concrete reasons, because see, your friend Wong said that there are three other places that you could have gone and you came here, to me. You, a doctor with doctor friends who could have helped you, came here, to an engineer without any certainty that I could or would help you, because we’ve never met. So what gives?”

“You’ve been spying on the Sanctum for months. You know who I am and you know how important I am. You wouldn’t have let me die.”

“It stands that I wouldn’t let anyone die that I could help, but you still chose to come here over going to an old doctor friend. So, I repeat. What gives?”

Stephen hesitated and Tony leaned back in his chair, watching and waiting. He was going to get a response if he had to drag it out of him. Finally Stephen sighed and rested his head all the way back. “Wong didn’t tell you?”

“Tell me what?”

“Never mind. Let’s just say you and I have had dealings in an alternate timeline. Maybe I don’t know you personally, but the you I’ve known has proved to be trustworthy. I was also banking on you having some technology you obviously haven’t developed yet, but I suppose this works too.”

Tony nods as he processes. “Alternate timeline?”

“Yes, where a giant purple maniac killed half the universe with the snap of his fingers. You changed the past to keep that future from coming to pass.”

“So no purple maniac.”

“No, you made sure of that.”

“And you helped me?”

“No.” Stephen stayed silent, but Tony had a feeling there was a lot more to the story than that. “I died with half the universe. I trusted you to take care of it, and you did.”

“If that timeline never came to pass, and you died, how do you know that I did anything?”

Stephen sighed again. “I looked into every possible future. And there were plenty of futures where you screwed up and everything went wrong, but there was one where you didn't. Where you and the remains of your team worked together to save the universe. And it worked. I saw it. If it hadn’t we wouldn’t be here.”

“Why don’t I remember that?”

“Because the version of you that existed in that timeline is gone. It’s complicated, how you avoided time paradoxes is beyond me, but you did. The only people who remember the alternate timelines are those who know enough about magic and time to look for it.”

“So you and Wong and your crew.”

“Basically.”

Now Tony sighed, “Okay, great. Well, since we’re apparently allies in an alternate timeline that never happened, why don’t you stay here and rest while I go anywhere else.”

“Tony.” Stephen called before Tony could get out the door. Tony paused against his better judgement. “That terrible fear you have, of what’s coming next, you’ve taken care of it already. It’s gone. It’s never coming. You beat it.”

“Yeah, after I let it win.”

“You can’t blame that on yourself.”

“Half the universe died.”

“The other half brought it back. You fixed it, Tony. You’re safe.”

Tony scoffed. Stephen tried to stop him from leaving again but Tony had had enough. It was too much to process. He needed some coffee.

Stephen sighed. Maybe this hadn’t been the best idea he’d ever had. He’d anticipated it going badly, but not this badly.

“You broke him.” Wong said from the door, take out in hand.

“Shut up, Wong.”

Wong didn’t shut up.

**Author's Note:**

> [Tumblr Post](https://iwritefanficsometimes.tumblr.com/post/181775535384/stephen-strange-and-the-no-good-terrible-idea)  
> This was originally posted to a [this](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17232671/chapters/40760018) oneshot compilation. Once all the oneshots from that work have been posted individually and have been up for a week, I will delete that work.  
> Find me on [Tumblr](https://iwritefanficsometimes.tumblr.com)


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